Irregular Periods & Severe Symptoms: What Could Be Causing This?

Question
Healthy 24 yr old female, no kids, never been pregnant and i go to my yearly exams and they are normal. First day of my period was yesterday, last day was last month on the 28th. I want to know if my symptoms are common. About every 3rd or 4th period, they're so bad i nearly have to go to the emergency room. This is what happens: I get palor, emesis, diahrea, numbness (mainly in the head), extreme weakness, and horrid pain. This all started about 7 years ago and when i went to the emergency room they said nothing was wrong w/me, other than i was hyperventilating and i was told by another that it was a figh or flight syndrome and to go to my oby/gyn. My obygyn found nothing wrong and put my on birthcontrol and i was on that for about a year. That made those nasty symptoms go away for nearly the following 5 years even after i stopped taking B.C. It has recently started up again and it happened again on my last period. I dont like taking B.C and i hate to go back on it but i want to know if this kind of reaction to my cycle is normal because it is absolutely horrid! When i'm not going through that i have to take about 1200 mg of ibuprofen to ease the pain on the first days of my cycle also which concerns me. Is all of this normal, what do you think? Thx!

Answer
The symptoms that you describe can normally occur during and slightly before menses. Some women experience them at each period and some are quite severe (PMS). Ibuprofen will help (600mg every 6 hours starting before your period starts). Sometimes Vitamin B6 will help. You claim to have these debilitating symptoms every third or fourth period, and this is better than having them every period.  Birth control pills will help tremendously and I don't know why you stopped them. The advantages of the pill outweigh the disadvantages. The pill will decrease iron deficiency anemia, pelvic inflammatory disease, ovarian cysts, prevent cancer of the uterus, cancer of the ovary, benign cystic breast disease, colon and rectal cancer, dysmenorrhea, and they will regulate your period and shorten your periods. In addition, the pill is 99.9% effective in preventing pregnancy. Good luck to you.